media gimic??

Aman ki asha – the ray of hope to forge bonds between India and Pakistan to begin a revolution, to begin a dialogue between the two countries, and help both countries develop singular attention on sustained growth and development. Aman ki Asha was a unique initiative by the Times of India group, and the Jang Group of Pakistan, in the month of January of 2010. In a joint statement by the two editors of the newspapers said that it was time that somebody initiated the movement to resume dialogue, since India and Pakistan need to get the distrust and disbelief out of the system to further the peace process.
Both India and Pakistan share cultural values, the countries are very alike in terms of their population, more importantly both India and Pakistan have emotional ties across the borders, people of both the countries want to make the effort, to come closer yet issues like terror attacks and political establishments hinder this noble cause. Hence with Times of India’s experience with previous campaigns like Lead India in 2007 and Teach India in 2008 both major success stories, motivated the group to undertake the “Aman Ki Asha” campaign with the Jang Group, to reinforce the process of dialogue between the two countries with a singular theme of “ peace” in mind.
The campaign in many ways touched the cords of the general public, what better way to unite the countries other than music, since both countries are so rich musically with performers from across the borders such as Abida performing for the public in Delhi, the turnout just reinforced what the survey previously suggested, it revealed that nearly about two-thirds of those polled in India and almost three-fourths of those in Pakistan said they desire a peaceful relationship between the two, Delhi had the highest rating for people-to-people relations.
The campaign cannot be called a success, but can be called a “successful effort” mainly because it reached the masses through extensive coverage in both the newspapers, and the audience connected to the cause, more importantly the campaign brought the need for peace to the front, building the pressure on the government to further the peace process. The evaluation of the campaign is difficult says Mr Pradeep Nair the Sub editor of the TOI B’lore since reach is not the main criteria that determines success, also that the Aman Ki Asha is still an ongoing a campaign so success or failure can be evaluated only at the end.
The campaign has faced a massive criticism not just in India but even in Pakistan, mainly condemning the approach that the newspapers have taken without really strategically considering the implications, also that the attempt is feeble, since it does not involve or call for the government to take action and just a plea for peace is not just not good enough to foster peace between countries that have so many problems between them like terrorism, water problems, border issues, infiltration and refugees to name a few,also many us will see the failure in more than one perspective, many feel that “Aman ki Asha” was not marketed effectively to the government or the public and merely looked like a PR activity for both Times of India and Jang, since it is an extension of the previous campaigns that were already initiated by various other groups Dil se Dil and Friends without borders, although unsuccessful, these campaigns are still landmark developments that initiated peace.
The media has a great role to play in developing of relationships with our neighbours but with Aman ki Asha some may feel that the media has interfered too much into the peace process. There is not clear distinction to say if the campaign was successful; since it takes more than a campaign to break into 62 years of distrust and hatred, however it is not an utter failure since it has brought to the surface the need for peace to sustain and prosper.